In the End the Love You Take
by OpheliusRex
Summary: ...is equal to the love you make. Tony learns what it means to be an actual adult human being with responsibilities, and Pepper grapples with the harsh realities that come with being in love with a superhero. First Ironman fic, turned into DW crossover xD
1. Chapter 1

If it's beeping, it's going to explode. If it's beeping, you should run away. The facts were simple and what she had to do did not take any kind of logistics. _Pepper, beeping means run. So you run. RUN. -_

Except that for some reason her legs and arms wouldn't work. She could only stare at the drone and the red circle in its chest. Beep. Beep. _Oh god. Ohgodohgodohgod_ it was too late to run now; even if she did she wouldn't get far enough away. _Okay. Okay calm down. Maybe it's a dud. Or a psych-out._ Even in what was surely her last moments, Virginia Pepper Potts was extremely rational.

That rationality disappeared when she was grabbed roughly around the waist and lifted- powered, rather- into the night sky. Beneath her, the Expo exploded into deadly fireworks. She stared down at where she would have been lying, dead, if- and she was flying.

She didn't have a problem with heights, but flying while _not_ in a plane and _not_ in a helicoptor and _not _in any kind of protective suit was quite possibly the most frightening experience ever, even if Tony's arms were wrapped around her with no possibility of her falling. That was a problem all on its own. She was pressed tight against the suit of armor. The generator in his chest was vibrating against her hand and she was fairly sure that she was screaming.

He landed jerkily on the roof of a building and as soon as her feet were on solid ground, she pushed him away (still screaming, albeit out of breath). He pulled off the helmet and all of her emotions bubbled to the surface, uncontrolled.

"Oh my god I can't take this anymore." She covered her eyes with violently shaking hands, trying to calm herself.

He sounded indignant and surprised."You can't-"

"I can't take this-" _breathe, breathe, BREATHE Pepper, breathe-_

"what're you lookin' at me-" _Swallowbreathespeak._

"my body…literally cannot handle the stress. I never know if you're gonna…kill yourself, or, or, or wreck the whole company-"

"I ju- I think I did okay!" He jestured to their loud and still smoking surroundings. She was exhausted and exsasperated and the last thing she had expected to come out of her mouth came right out into the open.

"I, I, I quit, I'm resigning…that's it."

It was as if someone had taken a lead-filled tank off of her chest and shoulders. She could finally breathe again, although the relief lasted less than a few seconds, because then he started to move toward her.

"What did you just say? You're done?"

Silence.

"That's surprising. No, it's not surprising. I get it. You don't have to make any excuses."

"I, I, I'm not making any excuses-"

"Well you actually were just making exuses-"

"No I wasn't making exuses-"

"but you don't have to, listen-" He took her hand and she kept on rambling because he was touching her and that always made her nervous and trembly.

"-because I'm actually very justified, I-"

"hey, hey, hey- you deserve better."

_ThumpWhump. _Her heart skipped a beat.

_Breatheswallowspeak._

"Well…"

"You've taken such good care of me. I've been in a tough spot and you got me through it, that's all. Right?"

Yes, right, that's all. That's all anything they'd ever been together for was about, him and his tough spots and her and the fact that she could always fix whatever he fucked up.

"Thank you."

"Yeah."

She wished he would let go of her hand. She was starting to break out in a nervous sweat and her knees were knocking.

"Thank you for understanding."

"Yeah, yeah, let's talk, uh, let's talk cleanup."

Finally, something she was good at. Except he was still holding her hand.

"I'll handle the transition, it'll look smooth."

He was inching closer to her and she couldn't stop him. She wanted him closer, and at the same time she wanted him far away, because he was crossing boundaries and she wasn't sure that either of them should cross anything any time soon.

"Okay what about the press, because you only had the job for a week, that's gonna be sort of-"

Or maybe she was just scared.

"Well, with you it's like dog years. I mean, it's like the presidency."

She had been about to make a sarcastic crack at him but the magnetics were too strong. They both moved at the same time, crossing the distance between each other's lips, which met in a flurry of fumbling fear and anticipation and electricity and it was perfect. She couldn't stop one hand from touching his cheek _(is this real?)_, but she was so weak tat she gave up and let it fall to his metal-coated shoulder. It lasted far too little time and he pulled away first.

"Weird."

Her heart sank until she realized it was a question, his dark eyes were searching her face for the answer and he was still holding her hand, the other around her waist.

"No, it's not weird." She shook her head, incapable of anything more than a whisper.

"It's okay, right?"

The hope in his expression melted her right down to the very center.

"Yeah…"

"Run that by me again."

They kissed again and this time she could feel him relax slightly, with one hand on the back of her neck, sending shivers up and down her spine.

"I think it was weird. You guys look like two seals fighting over a grape."

They pulled apart and simultaneously remembered that Rhodey was still present, crouching on the roof a few feet away. And still making jokes. She felt herself blush and started to ramble again, but this time Tony was rambling right along with her, his arm wrapped around her waist.

"I- had just quit, actually-"

"Yes, we're, uh-"

"You don't have to do that, I heard the whole thing."

"You should get lost."

"I was here first! Get a roof."

Tony chuckled and their sides brushed. Pepper found herself unable to even manage a small laugh- the exhaustion of the past week was finally catching up with her now that there didn't seem any reason to worry.

"I thought you were out of one-liners."

"That was my last one."

"You kicked ass back there by the way."

"Thank you, you too. Listen, my car got taken out in the explosions, so I'm gonna have to hang on to your suit for a minute, okay?"

"Not okay. Not okay with that." He looked at her like he was including her in the decision, like the implied _I'm _was an implied _we're_.

"Wasn't a question."

Rhodey shot off into the sky, and as he did, Pepper couldn't help but be scared by the idea of her doing that mere minutes ago.

"How're you gonna resign?" Tony grabbed her hand and turned her so they were facing each other. She slipped her other hand into his in turn.

"I don't understand." She laughed at the same old Tony, the lost boy who probably couldn't even tie his shoes without her help. "You look exhausted," she said, noticing for the first time the bags under his eyes and the slowness with which he blinked. "So do you," he pointed out. "Hold on."

This time, when he took off with her firmly in his arms, she wrapped her arms around his neck and let go of all the fear and anxiety and confusion. She wasn't quite sure where those kisses left them, but she was too tired to worry about it.


	2. Chapter 2

He flew more carefully than he ever had before, and that made him slower. Being a bit slower was fine by him because he had her in his arms and at the moment that was all that mattered. He could feel Pepper's breathing even out and her arms reach around his neck.

If she was exhausted enough to fall asleep a mile or so in the air, she was completely worn out, and it was his fault. Guilt washed over Tony as he realized what he had put Pepper through in the past couple of months. She was so good to him, and quite frankly, he didn't feel he really deserved it.

He stood in his foyer for a solid minute and a half, still holding her (now with one arm supporting her head and the other her knees), trying to figure out what to do. He ended up bringing her to his room and setting her down on the bed. Pepper's eyes opened slightly, slits of green with a smile somewhere in their depths, and then she closed them again as sleep took her over.

He stripped off the suit slowly, feeling each ache and pain no matter how careful he was not to wrench anything. The suit itself was only mildly damaged. The entire mask needed redoing, but that would be fairly simpe. Some wires in the arms had frayed and died out, and the back of the left leg had completely crumbled. Tony was in worse shape than the suit, he noticed, standing in front of his full-length mirror. His left leg was bleeding profusely from a deep gash behind his knee, his face was littered with small cuts and bruises, and his right arm felt as if it had been jerked out of its socket. On top of that, his neck and back were sore from being thrown around by Ivan's whips, and he was too tired to think about what to do next.

He did the best he could. He took a shower and bandaged his leg, popped a few Advils and downed a glass of milk. He had almost completely forgotten that Pepper was still asleep in his bed when he walked into his room again, feeling at once refreshed and beaten into a pile of shit.

He hesitated. It seemed natural to him to sleep next to her, but for once he actually cared what the woman in his bed thought when she woke up next to him. Would Pepper think he had taken advantage of her? Had his previous conduct really been that bad? He was a narcissist, sure, but he wasn't entirely sleazy. He fidgeted, rubbing the back of his neck, tied together in knots of doubts and worries.

Pepper ended up making the decision for him. Her eyes opened and she gave him a weak smile as she sat up with a yawn. "I have some clothes here for emergencies," she told him, standing up and brushing herself off. "Do you mind if I…stay here tonight?"

"It's already tomorrow," he pointed out uselessly.

"Is that a yes?"

He barely paused, hoped she didn't notice how he had to swallow a few times before replying, "Of course. Of course you can stay. Yes. Yeah."

He felt indebted to her when she didn't laugh at his reply. She brushed past him and disappeared, closing his door behind her, perfectly in control as usual.

Tony flopped onto his back, wincing when he remembered how much pain he was in. More pressing than his need for sleep was the predicament he was in concerning a certain freckled redhead. He rolled over to the side she had slept on, smelling her on his sheets and pillows. He smiled into the pillow before remembering how frustrated she left him.

Pepper was acting as if nothing had happened between them there on that roof. If he concentrated he could still feel her lips on his, her hand on his cheek, her arms around his neck. That and her smell in his nostrils created a feeling of warmth in him that he wasn't used to, that scared him as much as it excited him. He was caught between saying something to her about it and trying to forget the boundaries that they crossed when a knock on his door forced him to a sitting position and she was standing in front of him.

"Hi," she murmured, sitting down next to him on the edge of the bed.

"Hello," he replied cautiously.

"I felt like maybe we should, we should, talk about what happened." He watched her swallow uncomfortably as he decided how to answer her.

"What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know. You could start by telling me why you kissed me."

He spoke before he could stop himself or decide what he wanted to say.

"I didn't kiss you! You kissed me first!"  
"That's _not_ how it happened, and you know it."  
"Do I? Because I sure as hell didn't make that decision."

"Are you saying that you regret it?"

Was he?

"No, of course not! That's not what I'm saying. That's not-"

She turned her face away from him and he could feel her slipping away with every word he spoke. "No, Pep. Of course I don't regret it."

She sighed. "I get it, Tony. It was a mistake."

"God, no. That's not what I'm saying."

She didn't even look at him, so he had to take it upon himself to change her mind.

He turned her toward him with one hand and kissed her soundly. She didn't react right away; he had to chalk it up to surprise when she suddenly responded to his touch, turning her body toward him and kissing him back with just as much fervor. When he pulled away he couldn't help but smile at her, with her eyes still closed and her lips open partway. She opened her eyes slowly and met his gaze. There was something in them that he couldn't quite read.

Because it had worked before, he kissed her again, leaning her back so that he was hovering over her, their noses just barely touching, their breaths mingling. She opened her mouth to speak but he cut her off with a searing kiss. His lips toyed with hers and then left them to trail kisses down her slender neck .

He continued until he felt her fingers threading through his hair and heard a moan escape from her lips. He looked up and smiled briefly at the expression on her face before he kissed her yet again, begging askance with his tongue.

"Tony," she warned, her palm flat on his chest against the arc reactor.

"Pepper," he replied, mocking her tone.

"You're hurt," she realized, tracing a bruise on his face with one well-manicured finger.

"I don't care," he said honestly, leaning in to kiss her again. She stopped him, rolling him off of her with a little pressure on his injured shoulder. He winced as she stood up, heading into the bathroom.

When she came back, she was with some assorted bandages and wound-cleaning things he'd never seen before, needless to say used.

"Sit still," she ordered, swiping at his cuts. He squirmed at the sting, but did his best to keep from moving around too much. After a few minutes of the same, she sat down next to him.

"Is there anything else that hurts?" Some combination of exhaustion and pain made him honest and he smiled. "Well, my arm feels like it's been ripped out of its socket, my back feels like I've been run over by a tank, and my leg looks like it's been through a wood chipper." She winced.

"That bad, huh? You look clean, though."

"Thanks a lot," he smirked, struggling into a sitting position. "Contrary to popular belief, Tony Stark _does_ shower regularly."

Pepper snorted.

"A shower won't help sore muscles at all. What you need is a bath and some Ibuprofen."

"A bath," he repeated slowly, rubbing his hands together. "Can you explain that concept to me?"

She blinked at him warily.

"Like, I don't know, a demonstration might be nice. Baths are not really something I'm familiar with."

He stood up, so close to her that their noses brushed. "No," she breathed. He thought that maybe he saw her resolve start to weaken with that word.

"Well, why not?" He leaned in to capture her lips with his, but she held him at bay with both hands on his chest, stopping him just short of her.

"Tony Stark, you're a fucking genius," she murmured and he grinned as she raised one hand to the back of his neck. "I think you can figure out how to take a bath by yourself." She placed a gentle kiss on his lips and then, quite suddenly, he was again alone.


	3. Chapter 3

Oh geez, I've written this on an ancient Dell that has no Microsoft Word, so I had to do with Notepad and the formatting is probably SO fucked up it's not even funny. You'll have to excuse that. I'll come back once I'm home again and reformat it so that it's not so screwy. Sorry sorry! But you can't argue with my efficiency. Really, I dare you to try. You can argue that () I didn't include all the smut you felt sure you would get, but I never promised anything... and besides, there's another chapter being written as we sepak. Thank you so much for your reviews and alerts and favorites, I love you all so much!

:]

She hadn't meant to walk in on him in the bath, but somehow, she managed.

What Pepper Potts did not know was that, upon Tony's reentry into his giant bathroom, he discovered a slight problem.  
He had stripped and went to turn on the water in the tub (which was big enough for at least six other people and him) when he saw that it was rusted over. "Jarvis, what the hell?" The machine was silent for a moment of what Tony imagined as apprehension. "I thought other matters more pressing, sir. Seeing as you haven't used your bathtub in approximately three years, four months, and thirteen days." Tony growled under his breath and wrapped a towel around his waist.  
"Godamn stupid machine, you could have told me before I got naked."

He, instead, after peeking around corners to be sure that Pepper wasn't present, scrambled to the guest bathroom across the house and conviniently forgot to lock the door behind him. He had just sunk into the warm and soothing water when the door opened.

Pepper stood in the doorway, mouth open. He'd never seen her in anything short of professional, so the gray yoga pants and pale pink tank top she was wearing completely threw him off. Her hair wasn't in a bun or in a ponytail or down and curly. It was just down,  
strawberry strands falling haphazardly over her face and eyes and neck. She looked, quite simply, beautiful. He really, really, wanted her to be in the bath with him. More than he wanted to admit, he wanted to touch her, to kiss her, to hold her. Because she caught him so off gaurd, it took him another few seconds to realize that he was naked and she was standing a few feet away.

"I, er-"  
"What the hell are you doing in here?"  
"This is my house!"  
"Yeah, but don't you have your own bathroom? Oh God-"  
She turned away, shielding her took the liberty of being insulted.  
"Oh come on Pepper, this is rediculous-"  
"Tony, you're fucking NAKED!"  
"Well, yeah, but it's not like-"  
"I have to use the bathroom! What's wrong with yours? God I can't believe this, I can't believe you would-"  
"The spout on my bathtub is rusted over, I don't know-"

She disappeared, slamming the door shut.

What Tony Stark did not know was that, instead of going to his bathroom, Pepper slid down to the floor on the other side, feeling faint and flushed.  
She hadn't seen much of him under the water before she had forced herself to look away, but what she had seen- God. She'd forgotten how nicely built her former boss was. She could suddenly hear, from the other side of the door, Tony as he stood and got out of the tub.

"Stupid, stupid fucking beautiful woman. Godammit," and rumbled off into incoherency. Nothing really registered in Pepper's brain until she heard the doorknob turning (up until then she was still digesting what had come out of his mouth), at which point she shot to her feet and turned around to face him.

Except she didn't bargain on him standing in front of her, soaking wet, bangs hanging into his eyes, holding only a towel over his otherwise exposed body.

At a loss, Pepper brushed some hair out of her face, opening her mouth to speak words that didn't exsist.  
Tony swallowed and she could see his adam's apple as it bobbed up and down. "Pepper," he breathed, and their worlds froze.

Before she could stop herself, she was pressed tight against him, arms wrapped around his neck, their lips colliding in a frenzied mess of electricity and sexual tension. He growled into her mouth and wrapped one arm roughly around her waist, the other still holding his towel in place. As she backed him into the bathroom, she tugged at his towel until he let it fall to the floor.

In hindsight, she thought that they should have been more careful with that towel. Where he dropped it, it was too easy for her to trip over it. Lucky for her, Tony caught her and lifted her up onto the counter, where he pinned her with rough kisses and gentle hands. When he pulled back to kiss his way down toward her collarbone, she buried her hands in his hair and giggled. "You're naked," she pointed out, feeling like a giddy teenager. "And you're fully clothed," he mumbled against the hollow between her neck and shoulder. "Unacceptable, ," he growled, his goatee rough against her ear.

Pepper shivered, completely at Tony's mercy as he nibbled her ear and his hands slipped under her tank top.  
Her tank top and her bra disappeared onto the floor of the bathroom and he paused with his hands on her ribcage, just below her breasts.  
"God, Pepper," he muttered, pressing his forehead to hers. "You're beautiful, did I ever tell you that?"

She smirked. "Not in so many words," she admitted, her legs wrapped around his waist.  
"Well, you are. And, I..." he swallowed. "I, since before Afganistan, I think it was, I just... I feel like..."

A beat. Pepper watched him struggling with the words, saw his emotions in the tightness of his shoulders, the furrow of his brow.

"Tony..." he interrupted her with a chastte kiss. "Let me finish, Potts,"

He swallowed again. "Fuck, this is hard to say," he murmured.  
"You don't have to say it just yet," she replied, kissing the corner of his mouth. "Just, please. I... I need you, Tony."

In answer, he kissed her, slippinng his tongue into her mouth and exploring behind the ivory curve of her teeth, one hand buried in the soft hair at the nape of her neck. Her lips left his to trace his jawline, which then was lost to her as he dropped his head to her cleavage.

She couldn't stifle the moan he drew from her when his mouth encircled her nipple, tongue swirling, teeth just barely scraping her sensitive skin. She clutched his shoulders to keep from falling back against the bathroom he tortured the one nipple with his mouth, his other hand came up to lavish attention on the remaining continued, egged on by Pepper's moans and whimpers of appreciation as he discovered the touches that were most he switched breasts, she was practically begging him.

"Jesus Christ, Tony..."  
He pulled back and looked up at her, his dark eyes glazed over in desire. "Is there something you want, ?"  
She was in no mood for his teasing. She pulled his head toward her for a sloppy kiss before she hissed against his lips,"Yes, and you know very well just what that is."

"Do I?" He couldn't help but take pride in his own self-control. There was Pepper Potts sitting naked (when had her pants and underwear disappeared?) in his bathroom,commanding him to take her, and he was still teasing her. Well, verbally AND physically, considering that he still had one hand occupied with her left breast.

"Fine," she muttered, batting away his hand. "Have it your way." Before he even knew what was happening, she had reached between them to take his erection in hand.

He sucked in air through gritted teeth as she worked on him, eyes fixed on him as the tables changed. Now it was Tony who was bracing himself against the counter, stifling grunts and moants of satisfaction, incoherent words and half-finished sentences pouring out of his mouth. He managed to mutter her name, his dark and glassy eyes fixed on her clear green ones.  
She stilled and he exhaled slowly, blinking rapidly. "You have no idea," he breathed, "how much I've been wanting this."

"This?"  
"You. Us."  
"The bathroom?" she teased, removing her hand as he leaned in to kiss her.  
"I really don't give a fuck where we are."  
"Language, ."  
"Potts, you are driving me crazy here."  
"How would you know? You've always been crazy."  
"And beSIDES, you were the one who jumped me, and you were the one who chose the bathroom."  
She blushed, at a loss for a comeback, and he raised one eyebrow, leaning over to whisper in her ear.  
"Secret kink?" he suggested.  
"You're crazy," she repeated. Tony pressed a kiss to her shoulder.

"Bedroom?"  
"Bedroom."


	4. Chapter 4

They fell onto his bed in a tangle of sheets and legs, their kisses now no more than collisions of their open and panting mouths. They had left her clothes in the bathroom,  
discarded on the floor, so it was only a matter of positioning themselves before he could slide inside her with a satisfied moan. Pepper let out a breathy whimper and clutched at his shoulders as he stilled, both of them working to adjust to each other. She reached up to kiss him and he mumbled against her lips.

"What?"  
"No regrets?"  
"God, no. No regrets."  
"You sure?" He was suddenly nervous.  
She laughed. "Yes, I'm sure. Just..."  
"What? Just what?"  
She used her grip on his arms to pull herself up and press herself against him, her breasts against the flat plane of his chest.  
"Just fuck me already, Tony."  
"Your wish is my command, Ms Potts."

He began thrusting into her, slowly, keeping his eyes locked onto hers as he did, and Pepper moaned, fingers digging into his biceps. He kissed her breifly as his thrusts grew erratic and her fingers wandered over his back and shoulders. He used one arm to hold himself over her and then reached between them to brush his fingers across her clit,  
ripping a moan from her throat as she slammed her head back into the mattress. He could feel the coil of desire tightening in his stomach and the urgency grew in him to make her come first. Pepper hissed his name when he leaned forward to place kisses on her collarbone and the space between her feel of his stubble against her skin, his skin on her skin,  
of him inside and around and on top of her was what finally drove her over the edge.

She cried out his name as her orgasm snuck up on her, white-hot pleasure shooting through her body. Her orgasm in turn pushed Tony past the turning point and his thrusts grew erratic. Niether of them had thought to get a condom beforehand, but he was too far gone to care and she was already planning the trip to the pharmacy for the morning-after pill through the haze of pleasure inher mind as he came inside her, collapsing half-on-top of her when he was finished.

She didn't bother moving him for the few minutes it took for him to recover, instead she stroked his faintly-sweaty back and smiled into his damp hair until he sighed and pulled out of her,  
rolling onto his back to lay beside her. they were silent for a moment; Pepper listened to Tony breathe next to her, waiting for him to speak until it became clear that he wouldn't.  
She sat up and began to get out of bed but he stopped her with an arm around her waist from behind, pulling her back so that she was down beside him again.

"Where are you going, Potts? We said no regrets."  
"I was going to get my clothes," she replied, rolling onto her side so that she was lying partway on his chest, her hand on top of the arc reactor, her head on his chest.  
"I like you better naked," he murmured into her hair.  
She lifted her head to glare at him halfheartedly and he kissed her. When he pulled away, she stayed where she was, just looking at him.  
After a tender moment he reached out and brushed her cheek with his knuckles. The affectionate gesture threatened to bring tears to her eyes, though she couldn't say why.  
He kept running his fingers across her face until she grabbed his hand.

"What are you doing?" she asked when he pulled his hand from hers and continued as he had been before.  
"Playing connect the freckles," he replied absently. Pepper rolled her eyes and rolled on top of him, straddling his hips in an attempt to distract him or seduce him, whichever came first. She leaned down and kissed him as his hands went up to her shoulders.  
"You have freckles on your shoulders, too," he said, grinning.  
"You're so ADD."  
"Yes, maybe I am, but it's the mark of a genius..."  
"Says the man that is more preoccupied with my freckles then the fact that I'm straddling him."  
"I have to be a genius if I got you in bed, Potts."  
"Well now I don't know whether to be insulted at the insinuation that I'm a prude or flattered that you feel like you put some effort into seducing me."  
"Oh, hush. You know you're different."  
She snorted and rolled off of him.  
"You do, don't you?"  
"Hm?"  
"Know you're different."  
"I.. am I?"  
It was real fear that she felt envelop her when she asked that question, fear of being the latest in a long and unending line of women who had fallen for his effortless fear didn't quite ebb when he rolled onto his side to stare at her. "You stopped me before when I was starting to..."  
She panicked.

"Yes I did stop you Tony because I know that what you were going to say was just one of those stupid things that you say compulsively-"  
"Potts, really, what are you-"  
"because everyone knows you're a compulsive liar-"  
"I'm- everyone does not know that and besides, I'm not a compulsive-"  
"and I fell for it for a while, I did, really, but-"  
"well I'm glad I could convince you for a single fucking minute that I'm a decent human being-"  
"dammit Tony, let me finish-"  
"you never will and you know it, you'll never trust anyone ever-"  
"oh I trust plenty of people, just not you-"  
She sat up and stood, wrapping the discarded blanket around her in a vain attempt at covering up as she made her way to the bathroom.  
"This is stupid," she heard him mutter as he stood to follow her. She sped up, wanting to be clothed and gone. She was humiliated.  
"Pepper!" she kept walking.  
He grabbed her elbow and spun her around to face him; she pushed his hand away with one of her own.  
"Don't touch me. Don't you touch me. You may not lose any sleep over this but I've made a stupid mistake andI'll be the one who has to live with it-"  
"Pepper, come on-"  
"No, I will not come on, you don't understand what it's like to have to care about someone so scatterbrained and promiscuous and dangerous-"  
"...promiscuous?"  
"and in fact I have to wonder if you even know what it's like to care about anyone, period."

She stopped, out of breath, panting as she stared at him. He stared back.

"Pepper," he started. "Don't."  
"I-"  
"Just don't." She turned and walked away from him. There was a beat of silence before she heard him call after her.

"Pepper, I love you." 


	5. Chapter 5

Two in one day! Go me! Unfortunately I'm still on Grandpa Dell, so this is done on Notepad and the formatting probably still sucks. But that's fine. This was stuck in my head after I saw the original trailer with the helmet-plane-Pepperony scene, which you should look up if you haven't seen. It wasn't in the movie and that really disappointed me,  
so my way of getting revenge was to write it into this fic in totally different context. The banter is the same, though. So this is where I'll stick the disclaimer: I don't own RDJ, unfortunately. Nor do I own Gwyneth Paltrow, or Tony Stark or Pepper Potts. I just borrow them for my own entertainment. Don't own Iron Man, etc etc etc, or the dialogue from the helmet scene. I borrowed that and I borrowed most of the first chapter's dialogue from the end of IM 2. Thanks for all the reviews everyone :]

opheliusRex]

Pepper Potts was not a big believer in wishes and shooting stars, but there was one thing she had wanted with all her heart for ever moment of her life for years, and that was to hear three simple words.

As much as Tony Stark was an irresponsible genius pain in her ass, she loved him. She didn't want to love him, she didn't want to care, but she was drawn to him whether or not she liked it, and she had tried to go about forgetting that fact until a few hours ago.

"Pepper, I love you."

He almost choked and gagged on the words. It wasn't that he dreaded speaking them so much as he felt he was saying them too late, and that they would glance off of Pepper's protective emotional armor. And it was true, he loved her. Pepper Potts was the only person on the planet that he trusted completely, even more than he trusted himself.  
She was the one that was always there for him, the one to tell him to shut up and sober up, the one to hold him while he was sick, and the one to take care of the things he wouldn't have thought of in a thousand years. She completed him, OCD and extreme responsible tendencies aside.

He watched as she froze in her tracks, giving him the time he needed to pick a blanekt off the couch to wrap around his waist and catch up with her. She didn't turn around,  
though, and that scared him. And then it made him angry. He tossed the blanket onto the couch and turned away, back toward his room.

"You know what, fuck this. I try to tell the truth, I try to tell you how I feel, and this is what I get."  
"Tony..."  
"Forget it. Get your clothes and get out."  
"I was just scared," she admitted quietly. It only quieted his anger slightly.  
"Yeah, well, I'm pretty fucking terrified, myself, Potts."

Now she was facing his back and he was the one who was frozen walking away. She was silent for a long few moments, and, although Tony couldn't know this, it was dawning on Pepper that he could very well be just as scared as she was. But she had crossed a line, and then he had recrossed that line, and there was nothing she could do about it.  
She retreated into his bathroom and closed the door. The two of them dressed in the despondent silence of a war-ravaged house, each wishing that the past few hours had not happened.

Fully clothed, he made himself some coffee. He was trying not to wonder if Pepper had left or not, trying not to let it matter. The coffee machine whirred and then petered out.

"Jarvis."  
"Yes, Mr Stark?"  
"This is the second thing in as many hours that has not worked in this house."  
"Yes, Mr Stark."  
"And you didn't tell me because..."  
"Miss Potts told me not to worry about it."  
"Jarvis, who does this house belong to?"  
"It belongs to you, Mr Stark."  
He was silent for a moment or two before heading downstairs to his workshop, without Pepper, and without his coffee. It was only once he was sitting and staring blankly at some blueprints that he realized he didn't even like coffee.

Pepper got dressed and left the house. The clock in her Audi read 3:22 AM.

At the nearest gas station, she bought some hot tea for Tony and coffee for herself. As an afterthought she grabbed a packet of trail mix and a box of Cheerio's. She drove back to his house slowly, trying to understand why she had overreacted. She couldn't imagine how to explain herself to Tony without knowing her reasons beforehand. She wanted to trust him, but she had seen how terrible he got when he was on a drinking binge. She had caught him with countless women before, what was to say that she wouldn't again? She needed someone with a solid income who could provide for her, who would be there for her after a stressful day, who would try to do right. She needed someone who was like Tony and then also everything that Tony wasn't.

She arrived back at the house at 3:40 AM.

She didn't enter the house until 4:10, and it was 4:30 before she got enough courage to go down to Tony's workshop. She came in and sat next to him, placing the Cheerio's and the tea to one side and taking a sip of her coffee.

"Hi," she murmured.  
"Thanks for the tea."  
"Yeah. Well, you know. It's my job."  
"Not anymore, you quit."  
"Oh yeah. Force of habit, I guess."  
He pushed some blueprints aside and leaned back in his chair, sipping his tea.  
"I'm sorry I snapped at you," he said finally, "but everything I said, pretty much, I meant. Except for the leaving part. And possibly the clothes part."  
He smirked and she swatted halfheartedly at his shoulder. She took a moment to formulate a response.  
"I know," she said finally. "I realize that you didn't exactly get the reception you wanted."  
"You could say that."  
"I just... didn't know exactly how to take it, you know?"  
"You could have just said it back, you know."  
"Well, that depends."  
He turned and looked up at her. She had to smile at the look on his face, all skeptisicm.  
"Depends? It depends on what?"  
"On whether or not you meant it."  
He gave her an incredulous look.  
"Oh please. If you want this to work, you have to be honest with me, and don't tell me that you've never said that to a woman before."  
"Well, of course I have. But that doesn't mean that I was telling the truth at the time."  
She didn't have to say anything. He had proved her point without trying to and he knew it.  
"And just because I've said that while lying before doesn't mean that I was lying when I said it to you, Pep."  
"Convince me."

He sighed.

"What else do you want me to say? I love you. I love every inch of you. I am jealous of everyone who is with you when I'm not. And I am so thankful for everything you put up with by dealing with me and cleaning up my messes, I can't even begin to explain how I feel. Is that convincing enough for you?"

She felt like she was free falling for a moment before she said, finally, "Just about," and leaned forward to kiss him. He had just pulled her onto his lap when Jarvis interrupted.

"Sir, General Fury is calling." Tony sighed and leaned back as Pepper stood and moved away.  
"Put him through."  
"Yes, sir."

"It's four in the morning, you asshole."  
"Good morning to you, too, Tony. And don't tell me you weren't awake."  
"I was, but that's not the point."  
"We need you in Topeka, Kansas as soon as possible."  
"Any particular reason why you've suddenly requested for me to join your boy band?"  
"Don't flatter yourself, I haven't chosen you just yet. I'll send you the coordinates, and you'll be there."  
"What makes you so sure?"  
"If you're not, I'm getting rid of your phone lines."  
"Geez, fine. I'll be there in two hours."  
"Good man."  
"Exactly what should I prepare to be dealing with?"  
"A possible extraterrestrial or paranormal activity is what it sounds like."  
"Aliens. Not big on the idea of aliens."  
"Just get your iron ass out here, okay?"  
"Will do, dear."

"General Fury has disconnected."  
"Thank you, Jarvis."  
"Anytime, sir."

Tony rubbed his forehead for a moment as Pepper stared at him.  
"You're not really intending to go back out there on a mission after what happened with Ivan and the expo, are you?"  
"It doesn't sound like I have a choice," he muttered and stood.

She watched as he finished off his tea and stood on the platform in the center of his workshop. He was suited up in under twenty seconds and he turned to face her again, with the helmet off.

"Will you be here when I get back?" he asked her.  
"Do you want me to be?"  
"No. No, absoloutely not. I don't want to see you in this house again."  
Pepper laughed, "I'll just get some clothes and stuff and come right back, I promise."  
Tony visibly relaxed, rolling his shoulders. "Good to hear. Now, give me a smooch for good luck. I might not make it back." She took the helmet from him and kissed it for a longer time than really was necessary before she snapped it onto the suit, with the mask still up. "Go get 'em, boss," she smirked, and he kissed her.  
"You complete me," he replied before he took off.

The roof opened up and she watched him disappear into the beginnings of the dawn sky.


	6. Chapter 6

The coordinates led him to a flat grassy plain, with no buildings around for at least a few miles. He landed and took a 'look' around, using the radar and his own eyes. There were a few cows not far away (he shuddered, he hated looking at the things he ate), but otherwise, nothing. He dialed up the general, beginning to suspect something.

"Nick, it's me. I'm here. There's not a damn thing here, just cows."  
"Well, of course. You wouldn't expect us _not_ to disguise it from radar, would you? Just walk around a little, you'll find it sooner or later."

"You masochistic asshole."

He crested a hill and almost literally ran into a thin and battered man from behind. The other man spun, panicked. "I, um, who are you?" Tony snorted and lifted the mask. "I'm Tony Stark. Iron Man." When this registered no response, he added huffily, "I'm kind of a big deal. Engineering genius, multi-millionaire." The other man laughed, which just pissed Tony off more. "Yeah, sorry. I kind of live in a hole. I'm Bruce Banner. Doctor Bruce Banner. I'm… I was a scientist in a past life." Tony raised an eyebrow, looking the man up and down. He didn't seem like a superhero at all. "You part of Fury's boy band?"  
"Are you?"  
"I have no idea, but you just don't seem very threatening, that's all."  
"Don't piss me off."  
"Jeez, sorry," Tony took a step back. There wasn't any anger in Banner's eyes; he seemed to be laughing in a smirking sort of way. "No, I mean, I'm not threatening til my heartrate reaches a certain level. And then I… oh, you'll see." Tony dropped the subject. "Do you know what the hell we're supposed to do here?" he asked, lowering his mask again and re-checking the radar. "And why aren't you showing up on my radar?" Jarvis interrupted him. "He has been implanted with a radar blocker, sir." Banner had no answer for him, only shrugged. "I guess we'll know it when we see it," he temporized, and Tony grunted. More than anything, he wanted to be back home with Pepper. "Okay, well, I kind of have to get out of her as soon as I can," he continued, frustrated. Banner glanced at him. "Someone waiting for you?" he asked, and Tony swallowed. "Yeah. Yeah, you could say that."  
"Whoever she is, I'm sure she'd appreciate whatever the hell job we're supposed to be doing, because if she doesn't, she's not worth it," Banner murmured. It seemed less directed at Tony than directed inward at himself, so it was ignored.

Three feet away, a metal claw burst out of the ground. It was at least nine feet long, tipped in sharp talons and glowing faintly green. Tony engaged his flight stabilizers and Banner jumped back as the whole thing pulled itself out of the ground.

It was a bus-sized metal ant, clacking its jaws and reaching for them with deadly feelers, lightning dancing around its body. Tony fired and the bug seemed hardly fazed- madder, actually, but not hurt at all. They needed to regroup and he had to get Banner out of the way, fast. He turned to grab the other man and shot into the air, only to be blasted back to earth in a shot of electricity from the ant's feelers. "What the fuck is that thing?" He asked out loud as the scientist stood and brushed himself off. The ant moved toward them and Tony backed away, Bruce close behind.

Then the buzzing started. Ant after ant- all smaller, but at least the size of cars- clawed out of the ground and raced toward them. "Piss me off!"

Tony glanced at Bruce between shooting at the impervious insects. "What?"  
"PISS ME OFF," the other man screamed, clenching his fists.  
"How?"  
"I don't know, say something offensive! Just do it, fast!"

Tony tried everything in his artillery that he could use without killing both him and the other man, and nothing worked. They were running out of time.

"Uh, scientists are full of shit!" Nothing. "Global warming is a lie!" Bruce unclenched and reclenched his fists, sweat forming on his brow. "The government should cut NASA funding!" The other man growled something under his breath and Tony scrambled for more material, grasping at straws. "Your girlfriend doesn't love you!"

Suddenly, Banner screamed and began to grow. Tony watched, mouth agape, as the lanky man turned green and stopped growing at the size of a small building. "Oh," he said, under his breath. "I get it. Don't piss him off." And then the ants were upon them.

Bruce was able to crush a few under his massive feet, but Tony had to jump on top of them and rip out any wires he could reach, leaving them twitching. He was so busy finishing off one that another managed to grab him around the waist in its pincers, crushing him in its unforgiving grip. He gasped for air, writhing in pain as he felt individual ribs start to crack and his vision went black around the edges. "Jarvis," he panted, "Flares!" The flares went off and the grip loosened slightly as the ant made the metal insect equivalent of a scream, but he wasn't free yet, and the suit was in bad shape where it had been crushed against him. He heard a crunch and was freed, looking back to see that Banner had picked the insect up in one hand and crumpled it. He tossed it at a few others like a bowling ball, knocking a few onto their sides, where he easily stomped them into oblivion.

A screech ripped through the air and they both turned to see the largest ant rumbling toward them, jaws stretching for them. "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy," Tony mumbled, and Banner roared, running forward, crushing the rest of the ants in the process. Tony leaped into the air and sped after him, firing shots at the neckplates, which he knew were the weak spots of the smaller ants. Banner grappled with the ant but was caught around the neck by one feeler as the insect tore at him with metal pincers. Tony took the opportunity to change course and direct his fire at the multi-faceted metal eyes, which exploded, each with one shot. The ant screamed and let go of Bruce, who slumped to the ground, shrinking, unconscious.

The ant could no longer see him, so getting behind its head was fairly easy. Once he was there, it was a different story. The insect shook its head and screeched loudly, sending wave after wave of electricity through the suit until the screen blacked out and Tony was forced to bring up the mask. He pulled at wires, breaking them, tearing through them, but the ant kept moving. "Banner!" he screamed as the ant managed to reach him with one feeler, whipping him away from the wire center so that he was hanging on to the side of its shoulder. "Wake the hell up!" The other man was bleeding badly and it didn't seem like he'd be waking up on his own any time soon. The suit was losing power, fast, and as the ant found him with its pincers and he scrambled to be safely on its back, Tony knew that he was losing the fight. He was going to die if he didn't think of something soon. As far as he knew, Banner could already be dead.

His ankle was trapped by one feeler and wrenched so that it snapped, absolutely broken. He fell to his knees, nausea and pain overwhelming him as he was dragged into the air, hanging upside-down from the ankle.

He closed his eyes and thought of Pepper, the only good thing in his life that hadn't gone away. He thought of how he would never see her again, of her expression when she heard he was dead. Most of all he thought about her finding someone else, marrying, having children, growing old…without him.

"That's not right," a man said at the edge of his conciousness. "That's not right at all."  
"Hold on, " another voice said- female. Tony's eyes shot open. Both were British accents- could these be the culprits? The ant stilled and he heard an electronic buzz, and then he was dropped to the ground where he lay, panting, trying to stay conscious. "I thought you said we were going to Barcelona."  
The man sighed.  
"Well, it seems we never quite get there, do we? Now, let's help them. We'll figure out how we got here after we make sure these two are safe, alright…"

Tony blacked out to the sound of two pairs of footsteps heading toward him.

[ Oh god, this just turned into a triple crossover. Iron Man fans, prepare to be introduced to a new fandom. Hulk fans, same thing. Doctor Who fans… I have no idea how this happened in my brain or while I was typing, but it did, and for better or for worse, I guess we'll just see how this goes. xD sorry if it tanks, guys. And sorry for the delay. Love you all, and your reviews! Oph]


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